01 April 2011

max blumenthal is one of the country's premiere young (jewish) anti-zionists, israeli critics and expert in islamophobia.his latest book is "republican gomorrah: inside the movement that shattered the party."

an award winning journalist and best selling author his articles, analysis and video documentaries have appeared in many leading publications and networks, including the new york times, the nation, the guardian, the huffington post, the independent film channel, salon.com and many others. he is currently a writing fellow for the nation institute.

for the past eight years blumenthal has been covering the far-right. he has interviewed hundreds of the christian rights (christian-zionists) leaders and activists, attended dozens of its rallies and conferences and listened to countless hours of its radio programs and sat in movement oriented houses of worship where no journalists were permitted.

mr. blumenthal gives several examples how the jews through hollywood began demonizing arabs (and orientals) as long ago as the 1930s and '40s through such propaganda vehicles as cartoons by leon schlesinger for one. the film "exodus" which starred paul newman about the founding of israel is another;

"the reason the film was made was because the american jewish public was insufficiently sympathetic to or interested in zionism and the establishment of the state of israel.

they just werent very enthusiastic, so they made this film that had scenes of jewish terrorists from the irgun portrayed as heroic, saying you know 'duck there are arabs out there' and the grand mufti of jerusalem collaborating with nazis to portray the palestinians as nazis

so there was already a preexisting context where americans were cultivated to hate and demonize arabs and after 911 it turned into a full-on political campaign."

"what you have are a bunch of republican presidential hopefuls who really have no chance of defeating obama, competing with one another for who can be the most extreme, because the far-right controls the party.

today, newt gingrich, who's the former house majority leader, hes a great moral leader of our country who has had three wives, more wives than idi amin and i think cheated on his second wife with a paid congressional staffer and then left his second wife while she was recovering from cancer and so hes going to the church of pastor john hagee, who i discuss in my book. he is the foremost leader of christian-zionism in the united states and believes that the end of the world can come any day, that islam is the religion of satan and that if jews fail to convert to christianity during the end times they will burn in an ever lasting lake of fire.

yet hes a great supporter of israel. hes been hailed by benjamin netanyahu as a friend of the jewish people and now newt gingrich is making a pilgrimage to his church.

so this just shows how extreme the party's become. its really gone from the big tent of dwight eisenhower to the one ring circus of sarah palin and newt gingrich"